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Four short links: Russian oddments

1. Hermitage cats. For over 250 years – with a break during the siege when they sadly all perished – the Hermitage has been home to an army of 50 or so cats, and every year the museum holds a Cat Day in March with lots of cat-related events to celebrate the Winter Palace’s most important residents.

2. Abandoned Mayan statues in Petersburg. Exactly what it says on the tin. I don’t know whether this is a hoax or not – it has the feel of one – but it’s a good story anyway.

3. The Museum of Anti-alcohol posters. Overcoming drunkenness, Soviet style, with some very entertaining images.

4. Interplanetary revolution. A novel plan to export communism from 1924. At least partly satirical, I think, and not only against the capitalists – the image of Lenin as man-in-the-moon suggests to me a critique of the beginnings of the cult of personality – and possibly the strangest bit of film I’ve ever seen. A little more on it can be found in this review.

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